MWI Essentials ripoff Omaha Nebraska

They base their profit on getting members who do not check their bank statements. They do this thru buying credit info and selling their product thru third parties so the consumer is confused and/or decieved. How can a company have a good product, that out of $450,000,000 in revenues a year, spends less then $15,000,000 on its members.

It is also clear that this company signs up people who say no and that just plain do not know how they got there card number. This company should have J's charge number, but have not hit him yet. J also does not know the Federal Laws because then he would know that is bank or card company was able to sell his financial info to companies that it has agreements with. Plus he was refer to BBB's. BBB's hardly ever do anything to companies. Memberworks was so bad that they actually lost their membership for a short period of time until they wrote a letter saying they were going to change how they due business.

Memberworks Inc is a company that needs two things to stay in business. Since they do not have a real product to market or a product that is worth $140 a year and do not wish to have contact with the consumer. They need members who do not check the bank statement or do not know or care to take the time to cancel. They also need a source of new members.

Getting new members is were they spend all they money. From looking at there financial statements they spend much more in marketing than any thing else.

Below is a typical three month period.

Three months ended (Unaudited) in thousands of dollars

Revenues $114,045
Expenses:
Operating 19,178
Marketing 69,899 General and administrative 18,764
Restructuring charge
Amortization of intangible
assets 346 ---- -------- ---------- --------
Total expenses 108,187

They spend almost 65% of they income on marketing which is buying your credit or debit card info from a bank, a credit card company, a telemarketer, or a company such as Sears, Aol, a large travel company or any else they can pay to get a shot at your financial info. They spend less than 17% of their income on operating expenses which included their call centers and on actual consumers who think it is a good deal. But i would bet that is less than $5 million per quarter.

According to Memberworks, less than 50% of their members renew for a second year. Or in other words, the person checked their statement in the next year. So they need a steady stream of new members. That why they pay millions of dollars to other companies to get a shot at you not noticing the charge.

In the financial statements Memberworks it self said they were afraid of members canceling at a higher rate and they were afraid of not having their agreements renewed with some of their sources of credit card numbers.

So if people will complain to those banks, credit card companies and companies like AOL, Memberworks will go out of business. Memberworks says it has deals with 8 of 10 credit card companies. Only do business with those two who do not. Call your bank ask if they sell your card info to Memberworks or a company they have an interest in. Move your money. Cancel Aol or like I did. I called and said I was canceling my account and they give me four months for free. I cancel again in June.

Call MemberWorks and demand a refund in less than 5 business days.
Site with their phone numbers:
http://twiki.cageyconsumer.com/MemberWorks

Ask how they signed you up? If by So what can you do a company like this????
phone, ask for recording of your voice.
Ask how long you have been a member? You may be entitled to several years of refunds.

Call your bank or trusted company and ask if they sold your financial info? If they did, include them in any complaint and refuse to do business with them and tell your friends.

File a complaint with the federal trade commission and with your state agency.

Send e-mail to Bill OReilly, Dateline NBC, 60 minutes, your local stations, newspaper and anyone else you can think of.

E-mail your state and Federal representatives to change the law.

Here is a site that explains some of the laws.
http://www.cga.state.ct.us/2001/rpt/olr/htm/

Okay well I hear all of you people complaining about how hard it is to cancel your membership with Memeberworks and I have heard of how crappy their customer service is, but I have yet to hear anything about the quality of the product. You guys are just canceling for the sake of canceling.

You people don't even know what you are canceling (at least you don't remember what you are canceling) for all you know it may be a product that will save you $3000 a year (which would really come in handy if you are a family living pay check to pay check) but all you see is the $96.00 charge. And thats what leads me to believe you guys probably just accepted the product just for the free gift or the free trial period or maybe just to get the telemarketer off of the phone.

Either way I think that you guys should probably check into the product and know what the company is selling and how it works before you decide that the company does not want you to take advantage of it or that they are out to get you. I mean who knows, it might actually work. And you know those Federal Laws that regulate the way companies sell and they way they offer products or the regulations that dictate what they MUST disclose to the consumer before the products can be sold? Well did you ever think that maybe, just maybe, those laws were put in place for the protection of the consumer? And maybe, just maybe once in a while somebody checks up on these companies to make sure they are following FEDERAL LAWS.

Believe it or not they do have companies specifically designed for that purpose. And finally, Amy, what was the purpose of you rebuttal? You accomplished nothing, except looking like a fool. I mean what was the purpose of pointing out Jill's errors?

At least she had something informative to contribute to the situation. Did you ever stop to think that unlike other people maybe Jill does not spend her entire life looking up words in the thesaurus just so she can appear more intelligent?

Memberworks Inc. is a horrible example of free enterprise. They try to operate on the edges of the law and on the fact that alot of people do not check their statesments and do not read junkmail or fine print.

They train their employees to read statements of the that are such great savings to keep you in the club. They could care less about the consumer and they do opearte on the fact that alot of consumers trust things that they read that or free or that are offered as risk free. The company opearates on deception and on outright fraud. I'm sure that they do not fire on employee he checks the yes box for a package a person said no on. In fact that employee most likely has do that to keep his/her job. The company in fact does not want members to use their savings, because they lose money than. What company would not ever contact its members unless it was better for their profit picture. They do not want members to know they are members. They just want your membership fee year after to help purchase more debit and credit card numbers.

MemberWorks Inc. has many names to operate under to con the consumer out of their money. They do it through telemarketers, infomercials (answered by the same telemarketers) who offer additional products, through the offers from your bank statement, through their Website, through large companies you trust, and now through pop-up adds on AOL. MemberWorks Inc. pays millions of dollars to telemarketers, banks and companies you trust by their name, checking account number, credit account number, debit card number and other financial information. The company is listed on NASDAQ and expects to have over $450,000,000 in revenues in 2003.

Companies with deals with MemberWorks include but by no means limited to, are Sears (who along with MemberWorks were sued in Minn.), Limited Brands, through Victoria's Secret, Bath & Body Works, Express, Express Men's (Structure), Limited Stores, White Barn Candle Co., Henri Bendel, AOL, US Banks and Citibank. AOL was paid $1,000,000 in December 2002 and is going to be paid at least $3,000,000 in 2003 for access to debit and credit card numbers and have ads for that offers something for nothing if sign you up for a risk free trial offer. In the fine print they tell you they will bill you $139.95 in 30 days if you do not cancel and every year after that until you catch it to the debit or credit card AOL already has.

MemberWorks bases it profitability not on providing a service to the consumers, but on the statistics that people will not notice the charge on their credit or debit cards. They hope that you do not notice the fine print and forget to cancel for years. They sometimes offer $500 in free coupons on a thirty-day risk free trail and tell the consumer they will receive membership info in a few days and then send out the info in an envelope that looks like junk mail so you will not open it and cancel. Their ads are misleading and very deceptive in nature. They misstated the number of Doctors and Dentists on their health plans and misled on the percent of savings. According to MemberWorks employees they try to mistreat actual members who ask for the offered discounts because they loose money on people who know they are members.

So what can you do a company like this????

Call MemberWorks and demand a refund in less than 5 business days.
Site with their phone numbers:
http://twiki.cageyconsumer.com/MemberWorks

Ask how they signed you up?
If by phone, ask for recording of your voice.
Ask how long you have been a member? You may be entitled to several years of refunds.

Call your bank or trusted company and ask if they sold your financial info? If they did, include them in any complaint and refuse to do business with them and tell your friends.

File a complaint with the federal trade commission and with your state agency.

Send e-mail to Bill OReilly, Dateline NBC, 60 minutes, your local stations, newspaper and anyone else you can think of.

E-mail your state and Federal representatives to change the law.

Here is a site that explains some of the laws.
http://www.cga.state.ct.us/2001/
rpt/olr/htm/2001-r-0778.htm

I have no doubt that Jill is an employee of Memberworks. She sounds like a nicer version of the customer service manager I spoke with when I asked to hear the tape recording of my credit card authorization. They were unable to produce the tape but they assured me that if they could it would show my consent.

I have no doubt that Jill is an employee of Memberworks. She sounds like a nicer version of the customer service manager I spoke with when I asked to hear the tape recording of my credit card authorization. They were unable to produce the tape but they assured me that if they could it would show my consent.

I have no doubt that Jill is an employee of Memberworks. She sounds like a nicer version of the customer service manager I spoke with when I asked to hear the tape recording of my credit card authorization. They were unable to produce the tape but they assured me that if they could it would show my consent.

Jill,
I seriously doubt the authenticity of your response. The tone of your rebuttal suggests that you are a prankster with nothing better to do than add fuel to a fire. If, however, you truely are an employee of this company, you are an uneducated simpleton (your use of words and spelling was a tipoff). I hope you are young, so that age may show you the folly of representing yourself, and your employer without forethought. Does your boss know that you are responding on MWI's behalf?

For all the people out there who claim we stole money from them, call us at MWI and will will be happy to play a tape recording of your dumb a*s accepting our program and being told you would be billed. My company does not bill anyone that does not enroll.

These idiots use selective hearing when enrolling over the phone, ony choosing to hear the free gift part rather than the great savings we get them and low membership fees. Our materials take about 2 weeks to arrive in the mail.

Since most times the materials are sent with no shipping or handling charges, we send them 3rd class mail to save money. Stupid people mistake our mail for junkmail, and then tell us they throw away all their junk mail. We MUST ASSUME that people read there mail.